I took drum lessons for several years. I loved playing but I didn’t love practicing. Maybe you can relate.
Our parents and teachers meant well when they told us that it was important to practice. Funny thing, they were right.
It’s called “spaced repetition”. It’s how we learn and how we improve our skills. You can’t expect to get good at anything without it.
“Practice makes perfect,” we were told. But when you’re a kid, especially a teenager, practice is the last thing you want to do. (Unless it’s the kind of thing that makes babies.)
And that’s why many of us no longer play the drums.
As adults, practice is also required. If you want to improve your writing, your oratory skills or anything else, you need to practice. As a kid, we could say, “I don’t want to” and often (eventually) get out of doing it. We can’t do that as professionals.
And yet many do. Nowhere is this more evident than with marketing.
Lawyers start networking, for example, and give up because they don’t like it or because they’re not getting results fast enough. They start a newsletter or a blog or a video channel and give up because it takes too much time.
If they stuck with it, they might find themselves getting good at it. With practice, it gets easier, takes less time, and brings enough results to make it all worthwhile.
They might even learn to like it.
The work is usually not that difficult. Boring, perhaps, outside our comfort zone, but not difficult. Practice a few minutes a day, keep doing it, and eventually, you can master just about anything.
What’s tough is getting our heads right and making the choice to not give up. Whatever it is you want to improve, tell yourself, “I will until” and keep at it until you do.
Want more clients? Practice the art of getting referrals
